Author: Shawn

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Mmmm, menthol…

Man, if all this exercising with the Wii pans out, I might develop some semblance of cardiovascular fitness. It’s always been a dream of mine… but the biggest reason I’m doing it is because of my knee. My goal since surgery in April was to start playing again in 2011. (The doc gave me the all-clear after four months, but better safe than going under the knife again.) The winter season starts on Jan 9th, so that goal is inching ever closer.

These days, it usually hurts above and below my kneecap after working out and feeling a stabbing pain while trying to push off the turf to run forward might hamper my ability to play. So I’m taking precautions. For example, I’m putting ice on my knee for at least 15 minutes after exercising. The doctor recommended it, but bringing an icepack to the game and trying to keep it cold so I can sit around with it strapped to my leg afterward could prove difficult. I tested an alternative today and I think it’ll work: Biofreeze.

You may remember from back in November that I used it on my knee during one of the Mind Over Matt performances, at which point the back of the tube ripped open and plopped its contents all over the floor. I prevented that problem this time by getting a “roll-on” dispenser, which means it’s difficult to get stuff out even when you’re using it properly. Even so, I used it on my knee after my workout today and made a few discoveries:

1) It does indeed feel like I’m icing my knee.
2) I could get up and walk around instead of sitting in a chair with an icepack wrapped around my leg.
3) It makes me smell like menthol.

That last one could be a nuisance since I have to drive home after the game, which is sometimes a 30-minute drive. That scent could fill up the vehicle to the point where it always smells like menthol and every time I give someone a ride, they’ll ask if I have a chest cold and use Vicks VapoRub to try to get rid of it. I could open the windows while driving home, but during wintertime in Minnesota… I might end up needing the VapoRub.

Still, I think that’s the route I’m gonna go. If it’ll get me back on the field, I can handle a funky-smelling Shawn in the car—I’m willing to make that sacrifice. If you want a ride… well, you might get stuck making some sacrifices, too.

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Marvel’s words ring true

On Facebook, I occasionally get little updates from Marvel Comics (usually cover art for upcoming issues) and saw one this morning that just… the grammar police in my head wanted to go rogue, raid Marvel’s office and start popping caps in editors’ asses. The cover was for 5 Ronin #2 and the upper right corner made this prophetic statement:

“I’m afraid you will be disappointed. But then, all life is but a preparation for being dissapointed.”

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Interesting proportions

My family has trouble getting together. Lots of schedule conflicts, people running in circles… probably not that much different than other families, really, but we still like to meet at a restaurant to celebrate birthdays, although it’s usually for more than one of us at a time because of said schedule conflicts. My birthday was October 19th and my party ended up scheduled to be in November. We picked a time and place to meet and had everything all planned out. Unfortunately, the snowstorm that hit the cities that afternoon didn’t care about our plans. So much for my birthday party.

I mention all that because Justin and Molly got back from the Abu Dhabi Adventure Challenge last weekend and we still haven’t partied for my sake. We all met at Brent and Gail’s today to party for Santa’s sake, but not mine. However, Justin followed through with his offer to buy my birthday present while in Abu Dhabi and it’s pretty sweet.

There are two gifts and one is… I’m assuming it’s sweet, given that it’s a small bag of Arabian Delights brand “Chocodates”. Description on the front of the bag: “choco-date with almond”. My favorite part, though, is how the back of the bag lists protein, carbohydrate, fat and “energy” (in kilocalories and kilojoules).

The second gift is thoroughly awesome. It’s a polyester long sleeve “Abu Dhabi Adventure Challenge” shirt (logo on the upper left part of the chest). Across the back reads “Abu Dhabi” and the right shoulder has “Abu Dhabi Tourism Authority” printed on it in both English and Arabic. I started wearing the shirt as soon as I opened up the wrapping even though the tags were still hanging down at the bottom.

I finally cut the tags off when I got home tonight and took a closer look. It’s a Salomon-brand shirt made in Cambodia and sold in Abu Dhabi, which helps explain why the little “Warranty & Glossary” booklet has two small pages of information written in 28 different languages: English starts on page 2 and a southeastern Asian language ends on 59.

There’s also a tag that lists the size, etc. Not out of the ordinary—it describes the shirt as black and made in Cambodia—but it also says “T-SHIRT (SHORT SLEEVE) L”. That’s right, short sleeve. Out of all the shirts I own, this is one of the few that can reach my wrists when my arms are fully extended, so if this is “short sleeve”, I can only imagine what a long sleeve shirt made by these people would look like.

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Did Santa leave a friend under the tree for me?

Now that Christmas is pretty much over and the orgy of capitalism known as “the holiday season” has almost passed, this post isn’t as relevant as it could have been, but I still think it’s important. In a way, I guess it’s a re-emphasis of this blog post, but I wanted to write it anyway.

To keep it short and simple, I hope that you all remembered what was really important this December. Sure, presents are awesome. I rarely turn them down unless they look and smell like flaming dog poop—a man’s got to have standards. But there’s more going on than presents. There are the people who gave them to you.

There’s plenty of stuff getting passed around and plenty of people doing it. If not for the people… sure, you’re stuck buying gifts for yourself, but that’s not the point. The point is that they’re the ones who make this time the best. Stuff—material objects—will never be able to take the place of people. At least until they build androids that can travel back in time and try to kill Sarah Connor.

But it’s the human interaction that’s the most important part of the season. Love, joy, cherishing each others’ company… that’s the good stuff, baby. So I hope you all got to spend time with your friends and family and made your lives more complete because of it. Unless they gave you flaming dog poop as a present. Then you can ditch ’em.

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What, my ACL could get a cavity?

I went to the dentist today for the first time in… a long time. Since it was my first time at that clinic, I got there at about 1:10 to do some paperwork before a 1:30 appointment. I filled out the forms, then sat around until it was time for me to get my teeth cleaned. Finally, it was 1:30. Then 1:40. About 1:50, the person at the desk saw me in the reception area and said she’d go take a look to see what was up. She came back and told me the dentist was still helping someone and it’d be another ten minutes before I could get back there. Yeah, they were running a little behind schedule.

Upon my arrival into the dentist’s chair, they told me they couldn’t clean my teeth. Why? Because I had knee surgery in April and they needed Dr. Lewis to sign a form saying it was okay to do it. I was a little annoyed, but that’s their policy (for legal reasons or something else, I dunno). So I asked how far back it goes. I mean, surgery was almost eight months ago. That’s a pretty long time, right? Well, not long enough according to their standards:

You need to have that form signed if you’ve had an operation performed in the last two years.

Sure, I think that’s ridiculous, but that’s their policy. The dentist wasn’t going to clean my teeth, but they took some x-rays and found out I have no new cavities after all this time. So that’s the lesson of the day, kids: remember to brush and floss properly and you can have surgery as often as you want.